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Brent Jones, long before he caught passes from Joe Montana and Steve Young, played baseball as a kid in San Jose. And if you played baseball as a kid in San Jose in the 1970s and early ’80s, you knew all about Dave Righetti.

Righetti attended Pioneer High and Jones, more than four years younger, went to Leland High (Pioneer’s rival). So as Jones planted the seeds for his athletic career, ultimately shifting from baseball to football, he kept track of Righetti’s rise to prominence.

“He was the big name,” Jones said Thursday. “When you’re young and there’s a connection to somebody local, you’re absolutely following them.”

Righetti and Jones now have another connection: They will enter the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame together in May. Former Raiders wide receiver Tim Brown and former A’s owner Walter A. Haas Jr. join them in the 2013 BASHOF class, which will be announced Friday.

It’s a group with deep ties to the area, from Righetti and Jones to Haas’ background in San Francisco and long-lasting impact in Oakland and Berkeley. Brown grew up and still lives in Dallas, but he spent 16 distinguished seasons with the Raiders, including nine in Oakland.

Here’s a rundown of the inductees:

Dave Righetti

Righetti’s local sporting roots stretch this deep: His father, Leo, played for the San Francisco Seals in the old Pacific Coast League.

Dave Righetti reached the majors at age 20, was named the 1981 American League Rookie of the Year at 22 and threw a no-hitter at 24. He smothered the Red Sox on July 4, 1983, electrifying the crowd at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees converted Righetti into a closer, and he collected 252 saves in that role (including 28 with the Giants). Righetti was a two-time All-Star, but he probably cemented his BASHOF induction by helping the Giants win two World Series titles in the past three years.

“To be honored here at home is special,” he said. “I’m sure it has something to do with us winning the last couple of years.”

Brent Jones

Given his nearly exclusive Bay Area past – he played at Santa Clara before the school dropped football and spent 11 seasons as a tight end with the 49ers – here’s a seldom-heard fact: Jones was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers.

They took him in the fifth round in 1986, but Jones sustained a herniated disk in his neck in a car accident about two weeks later. The Steelers placed him on injured reserve and released him before he appeared in a game; he eventually signed with the 49ers and became part of a dynasty.

Jones played on three Super Bowl champions, earned four Pro Bowl berths and caught 417 passes in his career. Now he’s going into a Hall of Fame filled with childhood heroes (including Willie Mays, Nate Thurmond and Fred Biletnikoff) and his 49ers teammates (including Montana, Young and Jerry Rice).

“I’ve lived Bay Area sports my whole life,” Jones said.

Tim Brown

The Raiders endured some tumultuous seasons after they returned to Oakland in 1995, but Brown relentlessly produced big numbers no matter who was throwing him the football.

His 1,094 career catches and 14,934 receiving yards each rank fifth on the NFL’s all-time list. Brown made nine Pro Bowl appearances and had nine seasons of 80 or more catches, including seven in a row (1993-99).

He has been a finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame the past three years, making a trip to Canton seem inevitable. Asked if he expects to get into that Hall at some point, Brown said, “At some point, yeah. But there’s nothing I can do – I can’t catch any more passes or return any more punts.”

Walter A. Haas Jr.

Haas, elected in the Distinguished Achievement category, bought the A’s from Charlie Finley in 1980. That ended talk of the franchise leaving the Bay Area and launched an era of classy, low-key ownership (the antithesis of the Finley years, in many ways).

The A’s also became a powerful force on the field, winning four American League West titles in five years (1988-92), reaching the World Series in three consecutive years (1988-90) and winning one championship (’89).

Haas – a noted philanthropist who was famously generous to Cal, his alma mater – died in 1995.

“I’m not the most objective person when it comes to this, but he owned a team for all the right reasons,” former A’s executive Wally Haas said of his father. “He truly saw the team as a community asset that belonged to everyone, and I think he ran it that way.”